handmade wardrobe

It’s been a long time since I’ve put my thoughts out in the world and have been thinking its better late than never….It’s been quite a year and a half since I last wrote and I couldn’t even begin to say where I should begin!

My knitting has been coming along nicely and while I haven’t fully tackled a new technique or particularly difficult project I am pleased with what knits i have been adding to my life and wardrobe. There were few new pairs of socks (which I wrote about earlier this year) and a fine (but incredibly warm) linen weight scarf, along with a basic sweater!

My project list has a new subject to focus on however and one that I am more than excited about… a baby! My husband and I welcomed home a beautiful little baby girl earlier this year and we cannot be more thrilled! She has been such a joy to watch these first few months and I am still in awe of becoming a mom.

While I will sadly be going back to work very shortly it has gotten me to begin to try to think of ways that I would be able to stay home with my girl while still contributing to our household income. I have always known that I would enjoy staying at home and my maternity leave have truly shown me just how much I love it. However, it is the difficult part of our living in NYC as the cost of living is outrageously high which is what is taking me back to the office. That being said, becoming a stay at home mom has become a bit of a dare for me in seeing if I could make it work. I am by no means saying I am up and quitting my current job today ( I’m not that crazy!, if you’re reading my beautiful supivisor I truly promise to give you fair warning!) but I have been thinking about how a transition from one environment to another could work.

I am pleased to say that I feel my knitting could be a part of this budding plan and one that I plan to explore. If I remember to look back at my archived posts later I believe I had plans to write and publish one of my own patterns. That has been one of my first thoughts of trying to stay at home… come up with and write my own patterns to sell- as I would not be committing all my time to making each piece which would take away time from being mommy… What a great way too to test drive a venture like this as well…

So I raise you readers…. have any of you ventured into self employment?… what were your best decisions in the planning stages that would help another young entrepreneur? And knitters!- what have you found most helpful when it comes to writing, purchasing, or reading patterns?…

So following my last blog post, I finished my Goomy 50 socks! And let me say its love at first sight I mean, wear. I found that as tedious as it was to knit on size 0 needles, I am more than pleased with the outcome and have already started on my next pair! Cannot wait to see how those turn out.

Let’s go back for a minute to my pre and during college days… My dad thought it would be absolutely amazing if I became a sock designer… (insert usual late teen eye roll here…) now whether he was completely serious or not I don’t know but to this day it’s definitely joked about. So when I became serious about my hand knitting of course the comment of my knitting socks came up…

Well let’s say I was easily justifiably (in my mind) not into trying, like, AT ALL. The thought of how you possible turn a heel, create a gusset, I just couldn’t wrap my head around how it would be done- and patterns I even chanced to look at- oh no, it was a foreign language.

Then came the call saying Dad wasn’t well and … I couldn’t figure out fast enough how I was suppose to make a sock.. Six pairs in and he still hasn’t gotten a pair (really dad, yours are coming I promise!!) but I have become enchanted about how easily it is to wip a pair out pretty quickly.

And then…Goomy 50 happened (bottom right hand corner)…

And I couldn’t avoid the size 0 (yes 0!!) needle size… So to avoid actually experiencing second sock syndrome I looked up two at a time socks and I have learned a few things….:

1) casting on is dreadful, cast on separately and bring together once you’ve joined in the round…you just try navigating periously small rows of tiny stitches and tell me it’s easy!

2) that ladder thing everyone talks about- yeah it happens, and it sucks.

3) picking up stitches in the round for two?- yep that’s interesting to, I think I’ve mastered it though since I ripped out my pick ups 3 separate times! (Check this link out, the visuals helped in figuring out the correct technique…)

4) you get interested stares when you knit two at a time on the subway, and yes many will think they are sleeves…

5) the end result…sure, it pretty much blows all those annoying bad points above out of the water… Putting on a pair of hand knit socks is pretty f*cking satisfying.

You know you want to be a sock designer…so pick up your double points and do it…. 😉